President Mubarak says Netanyahu speech would abort peace chances, stresses settlement has to pass through Jerusalem

Western nations trying to contain bad negative aspects of Obama speech, U.S. sticks to two states solution

Palestinian, Arab reactions rejecting Netanyahu's conditions, stances, deem it "a step on the road to escalation"

Netanyahu claims he opened doors to peace!

The Cairo-based Arab League (AL) said that conditions set by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a Palestinian state were "disabling" and Netanyahu made "a proposal to be refused."

"Arabs would not make concessions regarding issues of Jerusalem and refugees," AL spokesman Abdul-Halim el-Abiad told Xinhua, adding that they would not recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

"I think that no one in the Arab World was surprised by Netanyahu's speech because we know his history and style of evasion," he said.

On the other hand, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Monday that Netanyahu's speech complicated the situation and throttled peace hopes in the region.

Netanyahu declared on Sunday evening that he was prepared to see the establishment of a Palestinian state, so long as the international community could guarantee it did not have any military capabilities.

"Israel can not agree to a Palestinian state unless it gets the guarantee that it is demilitarized," said the Israeli prime minister who took office in late March, adding that Palestinians must accept Israel as a Jewish state.

"When Palestinians are ready to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, we will be ready for a true final settlement," he said, emphasizing that the Jewish people have been linked to the land of Israel for over 3,000 years and ruling out the option of granting Palestinians refugees the right to settle within Israeli borders.

Mubarak, who attended a ceremony of the army's Special Forces on Monday, said in his address that "the proposal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state further complicates the situation", adding that "the Middle East would be a scene of unrest if there is no comprehensive peace."

He stressed that "the solution to the major problems of the Arab and Islamic worlds is through Jerusalem."

"Netanyahu's call for changing the Arab (Peace) Initiative and dropping the refugees' right to return, would not receive support from Egypt or elsewhere," Mubarak said.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Israeli prime minister's view which is "not complete" needs to be "developed."

"Egypt hopes to hear different Israeli proposal which is built on the commitment to the two-state solution," it said.

Furthermore, Jordan on Monday expressed disapproval against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's call for the creation of a demilitarized Palestinian state in his Sunday speech.

The ideas presented by Netanyahu did not live up to what was agreed on by the international community as a starting point for achieving a just and comprehensive peace in the region, Nabil Sharif, Jordanian Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications and government spokesperson, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman called for unity among Arab leaders, a day after Netanyahu endorsed, with conditions, a Palestinian state beside Israel for the first time.

"Arab leaders should be more united and preserve the spirit of resistance to face the Israeli stands regarding the peace process and the Palestinian refugee issue," Suleiman said.

He called on the international community to exert more pressure on the Israeli government to accept the Arab Peace Initiative, as he said Israel still has a will of military confrontation which can be proved in its offensives on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

On the Palestinian side, Palestinian National Authority (PNA) rejected Netanyahu's conditions for resuming peace negotiations.

"Netanyahu will not find any Palestinian to talk to under the conditions he imposed on the creation of the Palestinian statehood," said Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator.

He added that Netanyahu's speech was "a slap in the face" of President Barack Obama's plan to settle Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On June 4, U.S. President Barack Obama delivered a speech from Cairo University in Egypt, where he vowed to find a fair solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The administration of Obama had urged Netanyahu to accept the two-state solution and freeze the construction of settlements in the West Bank.

Meanwhile, Islamic Hamas movement on Sunday said Netanyahu's speech was "racist and radical."

"This speech shows Netanyahu's racist and radical government and its platform, which aims at eliminating all Palestinian people's rights," said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman on Sunday.

Further, Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement called on Arab states to withdraw the Arab Peace Initiative in response to Netanyahu's speech.

"The misleading Netanyahu speech should motivate the Arab regimes to cancel their initiative and stop being subjected to compromise," said the less influential group in a press release.

However, United States hailed Netanyahu's speech about the creation of a Palestinian state as "an important step forward."

"The president (Barack Obama) welcomes the important step forward in Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement when he commented Netanyahu's two-state speech.

"The president will continue working with all parties -- Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Arab states, and our Quartet partners --to see that they fulfill their obligations and responsibilities necessary to achieve a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a comprehensive regional peace," the White House statement said.

Earlier on Sunday, U.S. special envoy for the Middle East George Mitchell concluded his latest swing through the Middle East in a renewed attempt to push forward the long-stalled peace process.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech, which called for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state will complicate situation and throttle peace hopes in the region.

"The proposal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state complicates the situation further," the official Nile TV quoted Mubarak as saying.

The president made the remarks while attending a military ceremony with the army's special forces.

"The Middle East will be a scene of unrest if there is no comprehensive peace," he said, adding "the solution to the major problems of the Arab and Islamic worlds is through Jerusalem."

"Netanyahu's call for changing the Arab (Peace) Initiative to drop the refugees' right to return will not receive support from Egypt or elsewhere," he said.

"I have told the Israeli prime minister and U.S. President (Barack) Obama that the negotiations should start from where it ended without any delay," he added.

Meanwhile, Egypt's foreign ministry said in a statement that Israeli prime minister's view which is "not complete" needs to be "developed."

"Egypt hopes to hear different Israeli proposal which is built on the commitment to the two-state solution," it said.

On Sunday evening, Netanyahu declared in a keynote speech that he was prepared to see the establishment of a Palestinian state, so long as the international community could guarantee it does not have any military capabilities.

However, the Czech EU presidency on Monday welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conditional backing for the creation of a Palestinian state as "a step in the right direction".

"In my view it is a step in the right direction," said Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout, on his arrival for a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

"Of course, there are a number of other elements which need to be analyzed, but the acceptance of the Palestinian state is there," he added.

Netanyahu on Sunday endorsed for the first time the creation of a Palestinian state, provided it was demilitarized, after weeks of pressure from Washington.

But Netanyahu also said the Palestinians must recognize the Jewish character of Israel, a condition Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has long rejected.

He also ruled out a halt to all Jewish settlement activity as demanded by the United States.

The White House called his speech "an important step forward." Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt echoed Kohout's cautious welcome of the Israeli leader's keynote speech.

"The fact that he uttered the word state is a small step forward," he told reporters in Luxembourg.

"Whether what he mentioned can be defined as a state is a subject of some debate," he added.

Kohout, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency until the end of the month, said the EU foreign ministers would "analyze the speech" by Netanyahu, before any joint statement.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in Washington on Wednesday, with the two sides still remaining different on issues of Jewish settlement.

Speaking to reporters after talks with Lieberman, Clinton reiterated that "American commitment to Israel's security is and will remain a cornerstone of our foreign policy, and that the United States continues to want Israel to halt settlement activity in the West Bank."

"As President Obama, Senator (George) Mitchell and I have said, we want to see a stop to the settlements," Clinton said. Lieberman, standing next to Clinton, said that Israel is ready to have "immediate direct talks with the Palestinians," and that it did not have "any intention to change the demographic balance" of the West Bank.

However, the Israeli top diplomat insisted that Israel has to keep the "natural growth" of Jewish settlement. "We think that in every place around the world babies are born, people get married, some pass away and we cannot accept this vision about absolutely, completely freezing settlements."

The Jewish settlement issue has been one of major obstacles to the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and to their eventual peace deal.

It was reported that nearly 300,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, along with 180,000 Israelis in Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem. The Palestinians demand the return of both areas, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as parts of the future Palestinian state.

Obama praised what he said was "positive movement" in Netanyahu's speech setting conditions for a Palestinian state. "I think it is important not to immediately assess the situation based on commentary the day after a speech," Obama said, after meeting Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in the Oval Office.

"I think any time an Israeli Prime Minister makes a statement, the immediate reaction tends to be negative on one side. If the other side is making a statement oftentimes the reaction is negative in Israel."

"Overall, I thought that there was positive movement in the Prime Minister's speech. He acknowledged the need for two states."

"There were a lot of conditions," Obama said, adding that working through Israel's conditions for security and the Palestinian conditions of sovereignty could be addressed in negotiations.

"What we are seeing is at least the possibility that we can restart serious talks."

Netanyahu on Sunday endorsed for the first time the creation of a Palestinian state, provided it was demilitarized, after weeks of pressure from Washington.

But he also said the Palestinians must recognize the Jewish character of Israel, a condition Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has long rejected.

He also ruled out a halt to all Jewish settlement activity as demanded by the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia.

Obama called again on Monday for a halt to settlements.

"Both sides are going to have to move in some politically difficult ways in order to achieve what is going to be in the long term interests of the Israelis and the Palestinians," Obama said.

"On the Israeli side that means a cessation of settlements."

"There is a tendency to try to parse exactly what this means -- but I think the parties on the ground understand that if you have a continuation of settlements that in past agreements have been categorized as illegal, that is going to be an impediment to progress."

Former president Bill Clinton said that Israeli Premier Netanyahu's tough terms for a Palestinian peace deal are just the opening moves in a drama that will have a few more acts.

Clinton said it was a good thing that Netanyahu, who leads a hard-line coalition, went on the record in support of "any sort of two-state solution."

A week after President Obama addressed the Muslim world and strongly reiterated U.S. backing for independent Israeli and Palestinian states living side by side in peace, Netanyahu endorsed Sunday an independent Palestinian state beside Israel for the first time.

Netanyahu had previously refused to agree to negotiate a two-state solution, reversing the position of the previous Israeli government, which backed the road map to Mideast peace unveiled by the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia in 2003.

But Netanyahu attached conditions that were immediately rejected by the Palestinians — including recognition of Israel as the Jewish state, essentially means Palestinians refugees must give up their goal of returning to Israel. He insisted that a Palestinian state be demilitarized, and demanded that Jerusalem remain the capital of Israel. He also refused to freeze Israeli settlements in the West Bank, as the U.S. is demanding.

"Based on my experience with Mr. Netanyahu, he did what he thought he had to do to keep the ball rolling and not completely alienate the United States initiative," Clinton told reporters at the end of a news conference on his new role as the U.N. special advisor on Haiti.

"This is the opening play," he said. "This is his response to the Obama administration's first move."

"It's just the beginning, and it's a drama that will have a few more acts," Clinton said.

Reporters burst into laughter when Clinton said he hadn't gotten his talking points from the U.S. State Department and was speaking only for himself. His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is secretary of state.

Clinton, as president, brokered Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Maryland in 1998, at Camp David in July 2000, and in Taba, Egypt, in January 2001 — all to no avail.

He said Netanyahu's proposal on Sunday was "completely unacceptable" to the Fatah-led Palestinian government, which controls the West Bank and would not lead the rival Hamas faction, which controls the Gaza Strip, "to give up violence and try to join the coalition government."

Israeli and Palestinian politics are also "more fractured" than they were during his presidency from 1993 to 2001, Clinton said. "So we're a long way from where we need to be," he said.

On the other hand, the Saudi peace initiative proposed by King Abdullah in 2002 and re-launched in 2007 "has the support of the entire Arab world — save Syria — and other Muslim countries."

It offers pan-Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for the return of Arab lands captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.

Clinton said Obama, his secretary of state, and Mideast envoy George Mitchell "are basically taking the right position in trying to work through this in the right way."

"What would have been a disaster is if Netanyahu had not endorsed the possibility of a two-state solution," Clinton said.

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell called on Tuesday for a "prompt resumption" of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

Mitchell, speaking at his first press conference in Washington since his appointment in January, gave no time frame but hoped his preliminary discussions aimed at reviving the negotiations conclude in a matter of weeks.

"We all share an obligation to help create the conditions for the prompt resumption and the early conclusion of negotiations," Mitchell said.

"We are asking all parties to take meaningful steps," Mitchell said after four trips to the Middle East where he has met with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders as well as the leaders of other Arab countries.

"For the Israelis, that means a stop to settlements and other actions. For the Palestinians, that means continuing their efforts to take responsibility for security and end incitement," Mitchell said.

"We are also asking the Arab countries to take meaningful steps toward peace and normalization," he said.

"We are now engaged in serious and intensive discussions with our Israel and traditional regional partners to support this effort," said the envoy, a former mediator in the Northern Ireland conflict.

"We are encouraged by the progress we're making in these discussions, although hard work remains. We intend to bring these discussions to a very early conclusion," he said. He added later: "We hope to conclude the discussions in which we are now engaged very soon. To me it's a matter of weeks, not many months."

US envoy George Mitchell called Tuesday for a "prompt resumption" of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, claiming regional support for President Barack Obama has helped boost peace prospects.

Mitchell, speaking at his first press conference in Washington since his appointment in January, gave no time frame but hoped his preliminary discussions aimed at reviving the negotiations would conclude in a matter of weeks.

"We all share an obligation to help create the conditions for the prompt resumption and the early conclusion of negotiations," the special Middle East envoy said.

The peace negotiations stalled before Obama succeeded George W. Bush as president, when Israel launched a 22-day war against the radical Palestinian movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip in late December.

"We are asking all parties to take meaningful steps," Mitchell said after four trips to the Middle East where he has met with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders as well as the leaders of other Arab countries.

"For the Israelis, that means a stop to settlements and other actions. For the Palestinians, that means continuing their efforts to take responsibility for security and end incitement," Mitchell said.

"We are also asking the Arab countries to take meaningful steps toward peace and normalization," he said.

The envoy, a former mediator in the Northern Ireland conflict, said "hard work remains" but he is "encouraged by the progress" made in his discussions with the parties to revive the peace talks.

"We hope to conclude the discussions in which we are now engaged very soon. To me it's a matter of weeks, not many months," he said.

Although there have been many false starts to end the 60-plus year Arab-Israeli conflict, Mitchell said peace is "possible" and there were new reasons to be optimistic.

He noted a "dramatic difference" in regional attitudes toward peace because of Obama's early commitment to and total personal involvement in the search for a solution.

"The threat from Iran creates a circumstance unique in the region's history in establishing the possibility of a common interest between nations who for so long have been in adversarial position," he added.

Mitchell was referring to concerns shared by Israel and Sunni Arab countries over Shiite Muslim and non-Arab Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The US envoy's upbeat remarks follow heavy Palestinian and Arab criticism of a major policy speech given Sunday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

After months of US pressure, Netanyahu broke with his right-wing Likud party's ideology and endorsed the two-state solution, the cornerstone of Middle East peacemaking efforts since George W. Bush was president.

But he set a slew of conditions: Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state; full demilitarization of the future state that will not control its air space or have the ability to forge military pacts; and "ironclad" security guarantees for Israel.

He also refused to accept Obama's call for a total freeze on Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Mitchell said Washington does not see Israel's goal of a demilitarized state and a viable Palestinian state as "irreconcilable."

He saw Netanyahu's statements as a Jewish state as a goal rather than a "precondition" for negotiations.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) rejected Netanyahu's conditions for resuming peace negotiations.

"Netanyahu will not find any Palestinian to talk to under the conditions he imposed on the creation of the Palestinian statehood," said Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator.

He added that Netanyahu's speech, delivered this evening, was "a slap in the face" of President Barack Obama's plan to settle Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Netanyahu put preconditions that were also a slap to the peace process and the internationally-supported solution which calls for establishing a Palestinian statehood alongside Israel," Erekat went on.

Netanyahu delivered a speech today at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv, endorsing a Palestinian statehood for the first time since he was sworn in last April.

However, Netanyahu said the Palestinian statehood must be demilitarized and that the Palestinians must recognize Israel as the national home of Jewish first.

"Netanyahu's speech unilaterally ended all previous negations and made it clear that any future talks would be useless," Erekat added.

Meanwhile, Nemer Hammad, advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said Netanyahu did not bring anything new.

The address "looks moderate from outside but it is radical from inside," Hammad told Xinhua.

"This is not the doorway to reaching peace and settling the conflict," Hammad added.

The radical Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza rejected Netanyahu's Sunday night policy address, calling it a "slap in the face" for all moderate supporters of negotiations with Israel. In his speech, he ... erased the Palestinian refugees' right of return," said Ismail Radwan, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza, adding he also failed to "recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the independent Palestinian state."

Radwan also rejected Netanyahu's demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel's Jewish character.

"His speech is a slap on the face of all those who bet on the choice of negotiations with Israel," he said. Hamas rejects a two- state solution to the conflict with Israel and opposes negotiations with Israel.

"What is needed now to be done immediately is to stop immediately all ties with Israel," said the Hamas leader.